Nov 15 2009
How to Communicate with Agents and Editors
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When you’re ready to submit your novel or comic book to an agent or publisher, these tips will help you make the sell.
1. The only goal of your submission is to convince a publishing professional that your novel or comic book is likely to sell thousands of copies. Nothing else matters.
2. Follow the instructions on their website. Most agents and publishers will have submissions pages that lay out what they want to see. In most cases, it’s best to provide just what’s on the list and nothing else. (Exception: if you’re submitting a comic book script, consider submitting some inked or colored pages even if they aren’t required– these pages will help the editor decide very quickly whether your proposal is serious).
3. Check your spelling, punctuation and grammar. Trying to impress a publishing professional without clean writing is like trying to run a filthy restaurant. It really doesn’t matter how good the cooking is– customers will run out screaming anyway. When you submit your story for publication, you are asking publishing professionals to bet tens of thousands of dollars on your writing. That absolutely will not happen unless your writing is clean and professional. (I have met many people that disagree with the previous statement, but none that have been successfully published).
4. Before you submit your first novel, the manuscript MUST be finished. An experienced author can pitch a concept; an unpublished novelist cannot. Don’t bother trying to write to publishers or agents until your manuscript and synopsis are ready. Comic book writers, you probably need the script and series synopsis for the first issue finished before you can submit. Some publishers require more. For example, Image requires colored sample pages. In contrast, Dark Horse requires only the first eight pages scripted for a series and a synopsis (no art).
5. This is a business proposal, so be as specific about your target audience as possible. What is the age of your ideal reader? Gender? Are there any other significant demographic traits? (Note: comic book writers, be aware that most comic book buyers are males between 15-30 years old– publishers may be leery about working with significantly different demographics). Many authors are leery about giving themselves a target audience because they feel like it’ll limit the appeal. “If I say my novel’s audience is guys between 8 and 13, what if it turns out that high school girls also want to read it?” Don’t worry about it. Stating your target audience is mainly important so that the publisher/agent can evaluate whether you have a realistic idea of who your main audience is. This is what Image Comics says about target audiences: “Tell us who the target audience is (‘Everyone’ is NOT realistic — there’s no single book on the market today that everybody buys).” The same goes for novels as well– maybe .001% of novels have an almost universal appeal, like Harry Potter. If an author just seems to assume that his book is one of them, he will probably seem clueless.
6. When you’re describing your story, focus on what matters…
- Interesting traits about main characters (like personality and important background details)
- Goals of main character(s)
- Obstacles/antagonists
- Character development arc(s)– how does the main character change over the course of the book or series?
7. …and DON’T focus on inconsequential details.
- Minor demographic traits (typically height, weight, eye color and hair color, etc).
- Side-characters– as much as possible, focus on the mains. If the sides are more interesting than the mains, you have a problem.
- Unnecessary world-building details. If your fantasy world has six castes, please don’t tell us what all six are. Tell us as little as we need to understand the thrust of the story (probably just the caste of the main character and the villain).
8. Please don’t bother telling them how much your friends/family love your writing. Doesn’t matter, sorry. Publishing professionals know a lot more about publishing than your friends do. Otherwise you’d probably be submitting to your friends.
‘1. The only goal of your submission is to convince a publishing professional that your novel or comic book is likely to sell thousands of copies. Nothing else matters.’
Which is why I stopped trying to get published a loooooooooooong time ago
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Really? I relish the challenge.
If your main goal is getting published/making a living as an author, you have to generate substantial sales. However, some people need more substantial sales than others. A novelist may be able to clear his advance on 5000 sales (which means the sales were good enough to meet expectations), but a scientific textbook author would be THRILLED with 5000 sales. With a 10% royalty, a novelist makes about $1 per paperback (whereas the textbook royalties might be $20 per sale).
This means that novelists face a daunting task. If you’re the sort of person that takes a year (or more) to write novels, you have to sell a LOT of copies to eke out a living. Tens of thousands.
If you’re one of the super-prolific authors that cranks out 3-4 novels a year, then you might be able to survive on 5000 copies a book. (The good news is that I would imagine that sales tend to rise over an author’s career, because your pool of repeat readers grows from one book to the next).
I would say that the first step to becoming a successful novelist is getting a day job. No lie.
“An experienced author can pitch a concept…”
I imagine that, even for an experienced author, it would be easier just to finish the manuscript, then pitch. When when pitching a concept, it’s likely to change over the course of the book being written.
Say an author wrote book one in a trilogy about Alice and Bob, and pitched the concept of them fighting demonic invaders for the second one, but then decided that they would fight ghosts instead. Then the concept has changed, and I don’t know much about it, but wouldn’t the editor be a little PO’ed that they didn’t get the book about demons?
In most cases, I don’t think the editor would mind if it changed. They understand that writing the book is an organic process. In fact, I think it’s almost expected that a series will evolve over years. As long as you don’t pull some wacky genre-shifting, like having your Harry Potter battle space aliens in book 2, you should be okay.
If your editor is concerned that your readers won’t be as excited about ghosts as demons, he’d probably be willing to work with you if you had a track-record of turning out works that sold pretty well.